Annie Lang's Blog!

 " I Found It So I'll Keep It! " is a fun children's story filled with vividly colored whimsical characters with easy to read text for young readers that will keep them engaged with each turn of the page.  Doug the Bug takes a walk and discovers a few lost treasures along the way.  He will eventually face a social and moral challenge as to whether or not he should return lost items to their owners or keep them for himself.  It's a simple life lesson in decision making that we all face from time to time presented in a way that demonstrates that the value of making the right decision can be a reward in and of itself.    This is a great read-it-together book that is sure to spark some very interesting home conversations with inquisitive youngsters.  You can find ordering and book detail page at my Book Store .  Feel free to share this post with your friends and family and I hope you'll ENJOY!

When it comes to entertaining kids on a rainy day or finding group activities to keep the party guests entertained, this DIY game is an ideal way to not only keep them busy, but it's educational as well!  All you need are some fabric print swatches or patterned scrap papers, some cardstock, a pair of scissors and a bit of glue (I use spray adhesive). I've included the shape template I created to make my fabric swatch game shapes along with the basic directions.  The first time my 4 year old granddaughter used them, she immediately became engrossed in the colors, patterns and character images that were tossed about the carpet.  It didn't take her long to discover that the game challenge was not just matching single images like store bought card games, but seemed more like giant puzzle piece shapes that could be matched on both sides of each card! I created 20 different fabric card sets and it took her 30-45 minutes to complete the game, making it a perfect activity for G

A trip to Grandma's house always includes at least one fun learning activity and here's a simple project anyone can do together with preschool age kids.  All you need is a handful of pebbles, a bottle of Tacky Glue and a surface like wood or paper mache.  I just happened upon this rustic handmade birdhouse feeder while visiting a local cider mill and it turned out to be the perfect surface for our activity of the day. I began by first applying a coat of Thompson's Clear Wood Sealer to the entire surface and allowing it to dry overnight.  The next day, a pile of pebbles was placed onto our work surface where my granddaughter could select which ones she wanted to use on the birdhouse feeder. A plastic knife was the perfect tool for spreading a thick coat of Tacky Glue onto the wood area to be embellished. Pebbles were placed one by one onto the glue and gently pressed down into place.  Not only were her little fingers kept busy for an hour, but she was more than able to s

Chances are most preschoolers already know the "ABC" song. But when it comes to identifying individual letters out of sequence, they may experience a little difficulty associating the correct letter with a "sound alike" word. While my preschooler granddaughter was visiting, we came up with a fun activity which involved both of us taking snapshots with our digital cameras.  I had her find "alphabet treasures" that we could take photos of as we walked around the house and yard and we snapped away!   In about an hour, we had all the photos we needed so we sat at the computer together and unloaded the digital file that we would save.  I let her be the decision maker as to which ones we wanted to use for her book.  Thus ended the first phase of our project and we then moved on to making lunch! When she returned a few days later, Maryann found that each photo had been placed on a digital document (most likely by the digital fairy!) which featured each lett